Eircom settles with Big 4 labels

Ireland's largest ISP Eircom has settled with the Big 4 labels EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner, and has agreed to disconnect customers who download unauthorized music.

The ISP was sued in March by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and the record labels wanted Eircom to "install software from a U.S. firm to detect the 'fingerprint' of copyrighted music files being sent on its network."

Eircom instead agreed to disconnect users using a "three strikes you're out" rule, giving two email warnings before shutting off their Internet connection. No "footprint" software will be used by the ISP itself.

IRMA will forward the IP addresses of alleged pirates to the ISP which will then be in charge of sending out warning emails.

"High Court proceedings ... have been settled on an amicable basis with both sides expressing satisfaction with the outcome," Eircom said.

"The record companies have agreed that they will take all necessary steps to put similar agreements in place with all other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Ireland."

2 user comments

Wonder what will happen when someone say's "prove it" Are they going to side with New Zealand and say to you " no you prove your innocence ".
This has trouble with a capitol T printed all over it. The courts will have their hands full and the tax payer will foot the bill.
On a side note, my missus read somewhere about a figure of 20 pounds (the daily mail I think) levy to the music puppets on top of your internet abonnement. I don't know if this was per year or what. But it's time to join the darknets.
You know what really gets me though. These media monkeys are shouting about how much money torrent admins make from ad revenue. Why dont they just start their own tracker and give the content away for free. Ah mean after they seed the file initially then the public will take over and distribute the file for free. Saving huge bandwidth bills.
Everyone's a winner.
But alas these media monkeys are control freaks and also are not up-to-date with the modern world.